5 minute read
Attitude Is Everything
Nothing is going to stop Terrance Allen from achieving his dreams. The 23 year old from Inuvik, a carpentry apprentice with Inuvialuit Development Corporation, sat down with Tusaayaksat to talk about his big plans for the future. Terrance recently completed Level 3 of his training in Fort Smith and hopes to become a certified Journeyperson next year.
After graduating from Samuel Hearne Secondary School in Inuvik you took an introductory carpentry course at Aurora College. How did that go?
It was a really good course. I had a really good teacher, John Walker from Tuk. He was a really good teacher and he noticed I was good at it. I just naturally knew how to do it, so he really encouraged me to do more. He’s a really good guy. He had a really good sense of humour and always made us laugh. We wrote our trades entrance exam after the course and I got the highest mark in the class.
After completing your exam you didn’t immediately go into carpentry, but instead went south for deckhand training. What led you down that path?
I remember it like it was yesterday. I was walking up Mackenzie Road toward the library, across that bridge, and Jerry Lennie came up to me and asked me, “Are you interested in this?” He showed me these papers for a deckhand training course. “You can go within the week.” And I was like, “What! Sign me up!” Just spontaneous. I learned so much, and I’m glad I decided to do it. We spent a couple months down in Fort Smith, then a month and a half in Ladysmith on Vancouver Island. Man, it was such a good time. I met so many nice people. I learned lots. So many knots!
What happened after the course? Did you work as a deckhand like you had planned?
They said I was guaranteed a job when I came back, but then nothing happened. I was waiting maybe a week. So I started looking, and then Lazarus Maring at IDC called me and said, “Are you looking for a job?” I was like, “Yeah I am!” I hardly knew him at the time, and he came to me. It turns out he had gone to the college and found out who took the carpentry course, and they gave him the name of the top student, and that was me. I got the job July 8, 2011. I’ll never forget that date.
Seems like pretty lucky timing.
I don’t think it’s the luck. I think it’s the pull. Everything that we experience, we pull towards us by our current feelings and our thoughts. So your current situation now is a result of your previous feelings and thoughts. You pull everything toward you. Everything in your life. When Lazarus called me that day, I was already looking for a job. I don’t think it was a coincidence that it came to me. It was meant to happen now. I’ve been with IDC for five years now.
What keeps you striving to achieve your educational goals?
You see people on the streets, people who have all these trades. Or people who went to school and stopped. Either they don’t look like they’re healthy or they’re not focusing on themselves or they’re not progressing. And I didn’t like that. I didn’t like seeing that. So for me, I don’t want that for myself. So I like to go for it. Finish it.
Who drives you?
My mom Agnes. She has helped me forever. Lazarus too. He pushed me to go to school. He pulled some strings. He’s the guy. But mainly myself. So I just had the mindset where I knew nobody was going to teach me this or that. I went on my own. I wasn’t really that healthy of a person when I was younger, but I was always active. That kept me going. I was always outside. Now that I’m older and I’ve moved out on my own, I’m really trying to make positive choices in my life.
What positive choices do you make now?
I try to make healthy choices. I watch what I say and what I do. You are what you eat. You’re a result of your healthy choices. Lately I’ve been active with yoga, running and swimming. I want to really help people. Doing all these activities, like running and yoga, trying to have healthy thoughts, reading all these books, just to keep myself up so I can be a good example for everyone – and myself. I want to help a lot of people. Positive thinking does bring you positive things in life.
How does it feel to have a full-time job and a place of your own?
It feels pretty steady. Normal. It’s good to have a home. It’s good to have a job. I’m grateful for it. Being grateful is very powerful. It’s just something invisible that only you yourself would know if you’re grateful or not. If you’re grateful, then more things will come. We are powerful people. The right attitude will give you the right circumstances. It’s all about your attitude. It basically does everything for you. It’s a simple test, see, how is life treating you at the present moment? If someone says good, then they have a good attitude. If someone says life it bad, then you have a bad attitude. So you can basically change how you see everything, how you look at everything. You can see it with different eyes. And your results change. That’s what happened to me. I want to be around people and make them feel good because of how I’m treating myself. The way I’m feeling. I want to go high in life. Everything is beautiful around us, you just have to train your eyes. Everything you receive in life is a reflection of the feelings you put out. And you can ask for help. I did it. I got answers.
How do you stay positive around negative people?
Know that positivity can overcome any negativity anytime. Know that a good feeling, like love for example, conquers all. That’s why you feel good around good people, and bad around bad people. That’s just the way it is. There’s an invisible field of energy around you. Your heart, which is connected to everything in that field, will pick up negative or positive energy. Through experience we feel the environment we put ourselves in, which will determine our attitude we show the world. The attitude you give out is the attitude you’ll get back, and that goes for everything.
What advice do you have for Inuvialuit youth hoping to achieve their dreams?
Keep moving. Keep learning. Keep experiencing. Never stop.
